


Love Yourself

by blinking_post



Category: Winner (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst?, Breaking Up & Making Up, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 16:01:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7764154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blinking_post/pseuds/blinking_post
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Song Mino.  The love of his goddamn life and yeah, he might only be twenty-two but anyone who tells him he’s too young to know who the love of his life is just yet is completely batshit wrong.  As much as it might make his eyes roll to even think it when you know, you know.  He had known since the first time Mino had invaded his space to peck his lips shyly.  He just… he lost sight of that for a while there.  That’s all.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Hello~~! *waves nervously* This is the first time I'm writing Mino/Seungyoon. I'm absolutely new to Winner. I had known about Winner but tried for the longest time to not give in. As the past two days have shown me I probably should have just stayed away but it's too late now, especially since I adore Mino (and the Mino/Seungyoon ship) so much already.
> 
> I started writing this because I saw a minyoon prompt on twitter, something about minyoon breaking up and Seungyoon demanding that he gets to keep all of the pics he took of Mino. If this is your prompt let me know, and I'm really sorry that I forgot. 
> 
> But yes, I hope you enjoy reading ^_^.

\----

 

Song Mino has always been a force to be reckoned with, all hot fire and the charisma of a star in the making when he spits fire up on a stage.  Didn’t matter if it was in a club or on a tv set.  Off stage he has the heart of a child, the undeceptive curl of his grin open and welcoming.

 

Song Mino.

 

Seungyoon has loved him from the first moment he’d laid eyes on him, watching as Mino performed onstage at a club, a yet to debut Zico just a step behind him.  He knew then just as he knows now.  His knowledge of rap and hip-hop might be limited but Song Mino was something special.  _ Is _ something special and the world is starting to realize that too.

 

Song Mino.  The love of his goddamn life and yeah, he might only be twenty-two but anyone who tells him he’s too young to know who the love of his life is just yet is completely batshit wrong.  As much as it might make his eyes roll to even think it when you know,  _ you know. _  He had known since the first time Mino had invaded his space to peck his lips shyly.  He just… he lost sight of that for a while there.  That’s all.

 

He didn’t mean for them to end up here, shattered and separated.  The totality of their break-up hadn’t hit him until he had made it out of the side door, box of useless belongings gripped tight in his hands still.  They were done.  Over.  Meant nothing to each other anymore.

 

Except that isn’t true at all.  Song Mino still means everything to him.  Things had gotten complicated between them, one-sided sure but still complicated, and he’d let himself fuck everything up.

 

There had been an argument.  He can’t even properly remember what about anymore.  Something trivial that he’d blown out of proportion.  He’d walked out angry and angrier still he had come back on a day he knew Mino would be filming Show Me the Money 4 and packed up his stuff.  It was stupid.  He knew he’d made a mistake the moment he’d unloaded the last of his stuff into the YG dorms.

 

It just… it had escalated and both of them were too proud to back down, too proud to be the one to call first, to say sorry.  In the end he broke first, a stupid excuse about leaving some stuff behind and wanting them back when really all he wanted was to see Mino with the hope that somewhere in there they could talk and he could beg Mino to take him back.

 

Truth is he can’t do without Mino.

 

Truth is he’d like to believe Mino can’t do without him either.

 

Except it hadn’t worked out that way.  Mino had been cold, a look of cool detachment on his handsome face, eyes covered by dark glasses, features completely schooled as his words bit like frost.  He had only ever seen Mino treat one other person this way, and Cho PD was an asshole who deserved so much more than just being the only person in the world Mino hated with deep, burning ire.  To be treated the same way hurt and that pain twisted into something ugly.

 

It made him petty.  Instead of working it out with Mino, instead of apologizing and “I love you,” and “Please take me back,” he’d played off aloof, made a show of carefully going through his things to make it seem like he was searching for something important, only to demand all the pictures he’d taken of Mino, of the two of them, of Mino’s seriously adorable cat and his mom and his sister and Zico, all their friends.  All the memories he knew Mino treasured.

 

“You can’t be serious.”

 

Equipped with a blindingly brilliant grin on his face, he had answered, “Deadly.  My phone.  My camera.  My film.  My money.  They belong to me.”

 

Mino had gaped at him and then hurt crossed over his face before annoyance took over.  “Fine.   
  
He stomped to the bedroom they used to share and shuffled out ten minutes later, looking weary and more defeated than when he had gone in, especially when he handed them over.  When he had left he had spotted the only framed one still on their --  _ Mino’s _ \-- bookshelf.  Their first picture together.  He wants that one too, cherishes it a lot actually as he’d been the one to frame it but one peek at Mino and he couldn’t.  Mino looked gutted and he just couldn’t do it.  He had to get out of there as fast as possible before the guilt consumed him.

 

Outside the realization that this was the last time he’d leave this building, this was the last time he’d see Mino hit like a storm and everything surfaces.  The hurt, the anger, the frustration.  At the world.  At Mino.  At himself especially.  The devastation.  It manifests into something physical, finds its outlet in the form of him throwing his box of useless, unimportant crap against the wall opposite him, a frustrated cry accompanying the action.

 

He stood there a moment staring at broken, shattered items.  And then the anger and frustration disappears, left only heartache and devastation.  He breaks, crumbling along the side of Mino’s apartment complex.  Elbows braced on his knees, he presses the flesh of his palm into his eyes in hopes of stemming the tears.  It’s not working.  They fall regardless of his effort and he felt more the fool.  Ugly, choked sobs worm their way out of him and once they start they won’t stop.  He’s left heaving, coughing, throat tight and dry.  It’s pathetic, he knows.  He should have at least waited until he made it back to the dorm.  Always “the dorm”.  Never home.  Home is Mino and that means he can never go home again.

 

It’s all his fault.  They’d been chasing the same dream as long as they’d known each other.  Bonded over their failures and the obstacles, the hardship of choosing music as their future.  They rooted for each other so he never thought he’d ever become  _ this: _ jealous and angry and resentful at Mino’s success after Zico had practically dragged Mino onto Show Me the Money, promised him he’d make it there, that he was more than good enough.  Zico hadn’t been wrong.  Second episode in it was clear Mino was a strong contender for the title, and as week after week passed and Mino came closer and closer to realizing his dream Seungyoon, well, he felt stuck where he was: trainee trapped in YG’s dungeon still after five years.

 

Like he’d said, it became complicated.

 

He has his heartbroken sobs mostly under control when he hears them, hesitant footsteps making their way towards him, closer and closer before stopping in front of him.  He has no doubt who it is, can’t bring himself to lift up his head to confirm.  He hears Mino drop down to a crouch in front of him.

 

“Go away,” he mumbles out, his palms still digging into his eyes.  

 

Mino says nothing and Seungyoon refuses to acknowledge him any further.  Minutes passed by in silence.  How long he’s not sure.  All he wants is Mino to leave him alone so he can gather up his stuff and go back to YG with a shred of dignity.

 

Then he felt it, a warm hand on his head, fingers laced in his hair.  His heart skips a beat.  Mino clears his throat, and choked up, confesses to Seungyoon, “I don’t want to break up.”

 

He looks up, surprised, and catches the expression on Mino’s face.  Sincere and hopeful.  A little scared even but like he still loves Seungyoon too.  The dam breaks again.  He hides his face into the crook of an elbow and cries.  Mino patiently waits until he’s finished, until after he’s stopped hiccuping.  He doesn’t say anything.  The ball is in Seungyoon’s court after all.

 

He has made Mino wait too long, he knows, but he needs to control his stuttering chest first.  He still can’t look at Mino when he’s accomplished that but still he takes in a careful, deep breath to calm his nerves so that he could speak properly.

 

“I don’t want to break up either,” he croaks out.

 

“Okay,” Mino says, gentle and yet decisive.  “So let’s not.”

 

“Okay,” he echoes.

 

Easy as that.  Simple.  No questions.  Because Mino is kind.

 

He places a kiss at the top of Seungyoon’s head and then leads him back inside.

 

“Why’d you come down?” he asks when Mino is dozing off.

 

“I don’t like seeing you cry,” Mino says, eyes closed.  He scrunches his face in confusion and even though he doesn’t see it Mino knows him better than anyone.  He points in the direction of their balcony and Seungyoon gets it.

 

Later, when he’s watching Mino sleep, tracing the curve of his high cheekbones with his eyes, he confesses.  “I was scared.  The closer you got to your dream, the more I felt left behind.  I don’t want you to leave me behind.”

 

Mino shifts, turning onto his side while Seungyoon holds his breath.  Mino’s eyes keep closed, his breathing even still, and Seungyoon breathes out a sigh of relief.  He doesn’t want Mino to know about his insecurities just yet, his doubts in himself and his future.  He’s not sure he will ever be ready for Mino to know.

 

Show Me the Money 4 comes to a close.  Mino doesn’t place first but he’s runner up.  Zico is more disappointed than Mino is because Mino might play the optimist but Seungyoon knows how jaded Mino actually is.  Mistreatment by greedy producers and failed debuts has taught him to never get his hopes up about anything so Seungyoon holds out hope for him instead.

 

After the last episode airs Tablo calls him and asks him to sign with HIGHGRND.

 

They have their first argument post reconciliation because of it.  It’s stupid for Mino to  _ not _ sign.  HIGHGRND isn’t YG but it’s so damn close it might as well be.  They don’t get anything resolved that night and both go to bed angry but at least neither of them leave.

 

In the morning, Mino sneaks into the shower with him.  He rests his chin on Seungyoon’s shoulder and quietly mumbles out, “I don’t want it if it’s not with you.”

 

What he really means is  _ I’m not leaving you behind. _  The sentiment is almost enough to make him cry.  Or lash out at the world in frustration.

 

One day Tablo gathers the four of them together -- Jinwoo, Seunghoon, Taehyun and him.  The rejects.  The losers.  The lost and forgotten trainees of YG Entertainment, especially after the debut of iKon the previous year.  Seungyoon half believes they’re still allowed to train because Yang Hyun Suk has forgotten about them.

 

He walks in with Mino who keeps his head down, refusing to look at Seungyoon just yet, and then shatters their world when he tells them he likes their songs and wants to debut them under his label.  As a group.  All five of them.  

 

“Six months,” he tells them.  “Your debut stage is August 17th on Inkigayo so let’s all work hard together.”

 

The four of them spend a large part of that day in a daze but every time he looks over at Mino he’s beaming and eventually that infects him too.

 

The first month is hell with no one to lead them.  Mino steps up and tries but he hurts their feelings instead.  Seungyoon knows Mino is only stressed, rushed, and straight to the point with cutting words because he feels like they have no time to get anything done and an even shorter time to feel like a team.  Seungyoon takes him aside after he makes Taehyun cry one day, and says to him, “It’d be different if you’d been with us these past five years but you haven’t.”

 

So they do it together like they’ve done everything before.  Partners.  A team.  And together they build a bond with the other three as well.  And then Mino starts pulling back, contributing less and less to their joint decisions until it’s only Seungyoon leading them.

 

“Are you sure?” he asks late one night when they’re alone.

 

Mino grins at him from across the studio.  “I will follow your lead Kang Seungyoon.”

 

When their album is complete Tablo leans back in his chair, hands laced on top of his head as he swivels around.  He beams proudly at them.  “Yah,” he says, “Each one of you really is a winner.”

 

None of it feels real even while they’re on stage with their fans loudly chanting their names.

 

None of it feels real until after they perform, after they’re walking down the steps leading backstage the final time.  Jinwoo starts first and then Taehyun and then they’re all crying.  Seunghoon cries the hardest but that’s probably because Seungyoon is muffling his sobs into Mino’s shoulder.  Their staff gathers around them all, laughs fondly as they try to comfort them with words, telling them they shouldn’t be crying during such a happy moment.

 

It only makes them cry harder.

 

Six months later, when there is finally a two day lull in their schedule, they drive four hours to watch the sun set on a secluded white sandy beach.  He says to Mino, “Thank you,” even when he knows it’s not nearly enough to convey everything that he feels.

 

Mino bumps his shoulder boldly but Seungyoon catches the shy smile he tries to hide.  Without looking at Seungyoon, he says, “I told you.  I don’t want it if it’s not with you.”

 

Mino keeps watching the sunset but Seungyoon can’t look anywhere but at Mino, heart fluttering in his chest the way it never ceases to when Mino is near him.

 

Yeah.

 

Definitely the love of his life.

 

Song Mino.

 

\----

**Author's Note:**

> So in my long, long, _long_ failed battle to not become a Winner fan I actually learned quite a bit about them. No lie, this fic is half wish fulfillment. I really do wish Tablo would save Winner from the clutches of YG.
> 
> But yes, since I'm so new to the minyoon ship, if you have any, please please please link me to everything and anything minyoon related. I feel like I haven't even started breaking the surface yet! LOL... I might also need some minyoon friends because I keep bombarding my friend with them and she doesn't even really like k-pop so that makes me feel terrible!
> 
> Anyhow, thank you for reading and, as always, comments and kudos are very much appreciated ^_^


End file.
